The best Garmin deals and sales on smartwatches and fitness trackers for Black Friday 2018

Find the best Garmin deals on everything from activity trackers to golfing GPS

Garmin sales are a year-round event: with such a dizzying range of products and such a frequent turnover of new devices, there are always great Garmin deals to be found. In this round-up we’re focusing on the current Garmin range of products, but if you’re willing to go back a generation or two on items such as fitness trackers you can often save even more. The downside, of course, is that you won’t get the very latest features or best batteries, but you might find that for the same money a previous-gen Garmin is a better buy than a brand new third-party imitation.

Our round-up includes smartwatches and golf helpers, fitness trackers and activity monitors. No matter what kind of activity you’re into, these are great Garmin deals on products you’ll love. If they're looking a little pricey today, you might have better luck in the upcoming Black Friday deals.

The best Garmin deals and sales

Garmin Vivosmart 3

Super thin

Super light

Super generally

There’s a lot to like about the Vivosmart 3, and now it’s been superseded by the Vivosmart 4 it’s available at really good prices. It’s a fitness tracker rather than a smartwatch and it comes in two wrist sizes, so make sure you order the right one. It’s thin, light and fairly discreet – it’s more like a thick bangle than a chunky smartwatch – and it’s as happy in the water as it is on dry land. It monitors wellness as well as activity thanks to its stress monitoring, which is based on heart rate variability, and you can get notifications from your phone as well as your fitness information.

Today's best Garmin Vivosmart 3 deals

Garmin Vivosmart 4

Good looking

Pulse Ox sensor

Superb fitness tracking

The Vivosmart 4 is a little more expensive than the outgoing 3, but to our eyes it’s a lot better looking: you can opt for the standard None More Black version, but if you prefer there’s a selection of nice colors to choose from. The burgundy/gold one’s particularly nice.

The main difference between 4 and 3 is the addition of a Pulse Ox sensor, which monitors how your body absorbs oxygen. Garmin is clear that it’s not a medical device, but it’s a pretty good measure of a key part of your general health and fitness. It’s a useful addition to an already very impressive fitness device.

Today's best Garmin Vivosmart 4 deals

Garmin Vivosport

Always-on color display

GPS

Discreet

The Vivosport looks like a fitness tracker but has much the same feature set as a smartwatch, and its always-on color display means it’s immediately a lot less of a pain than a certain famously expensive watch. There’s seven days of tracking or eight hours with the internal GPS switched on, and like other Garmin trackers it monitors not just exercise and steps but also VO2 max and stress. You can also take it into the pool or the shower. As trackers go it’s one of the better looking ones, and it’s available in two sizes and a range of different color options.

Today's best Garmin Vivosport deals

Garmin Vivofit Jr 2

Fun designs

1 year battery

Prices can vary

As the name suggests, the Vivofit Jr 2 is for kids. It’s available in a range of swim-friendly, kid-friendly designs, and prices vary dramatically: for example in the UK the Star Wars one is currently a lot cheaper than the others. It tracks steps and sleeps and has a game element: parents can set particular goals which the children can complete in order to earn coins. The accompanying app is kid-friendly too, and manages to stay on the right side of the line between encouraging activity and giving your kids a complex. And with a year of battery life you don’t need to worry about recharging it.

Today's best Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 deals

Garmin Vivoactive 3

Huge flexibility

7 day battery

Personalized faces

If you’re looking for a do-everything smartwatch that won’t break the bank, may we humbly suggest the Vivoactive 3? It’s available in a decent range of colors (white and rose gold looks particularly good) which make a change from GPS watches’ usual black, although you can have that if you prefer. There’s substance to match the style: seven day battery life, 15 GPS and indoor sports apps, VO2 max estimates, phone notifications and even stress monitoring. You can also customize the display by choosing from a massive selection in the ConnectIQ Store. It’s an excellent all-rounder and really good value for money.

Today's best Garmin Vivoactive 3 deals

Garmin Vivomove HR

Looks fantastic

Real hands

Extensive tools

It’s a sad indictment of the smartwatch sector when something like the Vivomove HR is strikingly beautiful compared to its rivals, but that’s very much the case: it’s a hybrid smartwatch with a proper watch face as well as a screen, and it looks particularly good in its non-black variants. The rose gold/grey combination and black/sand are particularly nice.

Once again there’s substance to match the style: VO2 max measuring, stress tracking and the usual steps, calories, distance, heart rate and intensity recording. It does everything you’d want a smartwatch to do with the added benefit of not looking like an oversized kids’ cheapie.

Today's best Garmin Vivomove HR deals

Garmin Forerunner 645 Music

Music!

Garmin Pay

7 day battery

The Forerunner 645 is a do-everything smartwatch: you can download up to 500 songs and play them via Bluetooth headphones, or stream from supported third-party services, and you can use it to read and reply to messages and emails.

It has Garmin Pay for contactless payments, a whole host of activity monitoring features (and support for the Running Dynamics Pod and HRM-Run/HRM-Tri monitors) and a really strong battery. You’ll get seven days in smartwatch mode, or five hours in GPS mode with music playing. It’s also water resistant to 5 ATM.

It’s not bad looking either: it’s utilitarian rather than decorative, but it works.

Today's best Garmin Forerunner 645 Music deals

Garmin Forerunner 935

Tons of sensors

Multisport

A little chunky

The Forerunner looks a little bit Casio G-Shock for our tastes – it’s not something you’ll want to keep on when you change into your best suit or evening dress – but we can’t argue with its capabilities: it’s a superb multi-sport activity tracker whether you’re a runner, a cyclist or a swimmer. It’s got a barometer, an altimeter and an electronic compass as well as GPS for really accurate tracking; it provides incredibly detailed information on everything from stride length to VO2 max; it’s compatible with chest straps and other external monitors and it syncs nicely with Strava Premium. It’s also very light at just 49g.

Today's best Garmin Forerunner 935 deals

Garmin Fenix 5 Plus

Premium look and feel

Does everything

Expensive

You get what you pay for, and if you pay for a Fenix 5 Plus you get an awful lot. It’s a premium product with sapphire glass and stainless steel or diamond-like carbon titanium hardware, it connects to not one but three GPS systems (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo), it has more sensors than you can shake a stick at and it runs for 10 days in smartwatch mode or a whopping eight hours with GPS and music running. It’s quite heavy at 3oz (about 90g) but it looks and feels as indestructible as the Batmobile. It’s massively over the top for a quick run around the park but it’s a seriously smart watch for serious athletes and explorers.

Today's best Garmin Fenix 5 Plus deals

Garmin Approach S60

Sunlight readable display

40,000 preloaded courses

Precise maps

How much would you pay to improve your swing or just up your golf game? The Approach S60 offers a lot of useful tech in a package whose screen remains perfectly readable in direct sunlight. It knows of over 40,000 courses, can automatically track your shots and enables you to get the information you need about each hole as you need it. It can even help you with blind shots.

It’s useful off the course as well as on: you can use it to get smartphone notifications (or turn them off when you don’t want your concentration interrupted), you can customize the face and you can compete on leaderboards with friends via the app.

Today's best Garmin Approach S60 deals

If you're not quite sure if any of these Garmin fitness trackers or smartwatches are a good fit for you, take a look at our guide for the best cheap Fitbit sale prices and deals for a list of alternatives.